1st Stop - Langenau

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Sydney - Singapore - Frankfurt (Air) + Frankfurt - Ulm - Langenau (Train)

13 July

After the many QANTAS redundancy delays, finalisation of what seemed to be our never ending paper life, and the zero availability of QANTAS flights to Germany, it seemed like a miracle that we were on a flight, in business class, flying at 35,000ft over the continent we had just spent 4 months driving around.

You would think though with all the extra time up our sleeves that we would have a pretty good idea of our itinerary and method of travel, but unfortunately no. In fact the Eurail ticket was a last minute decision only picked up 2 days before we flew out. We now have 15 days of train travel in 18 European countries over two months… so begins the Roaming Roaches Eurail Excursion.

First stop, Langenau, Germany. The rest we’ll figure out as we go.

Although the delays were needed and some beyond our control it was still disappointing to have missed sharing the 2006 Football World Cup in with our friends in Germany. When we arrived at Frankfurt airport there was plenty of evidence that one of the biggest sporting events in the world had just happened here with banners, advertising and posters still around us - but the buzz and vibe had obviously disappeared with the thousands of visitors as they left. We had our Eurail tickets validated and we were off towards Ulm and the village of Langenau where our friends Alex and Christina and their two kids Lili and Maya live.

Leaving the city for the country, remnants of the world cup become less obvious replaced by the rural backdrop of green and orange checkerboard fields and distant red-roofed villages shimmering in the summer heat. We enter one such village as we get off the train at Langenau heading in the direction of our friends new house from our vague memory of this town from the last time we were here. After putting our rusty German to use for some directions and getting some strange looks from a few of the older locals (I don’t think Langenau is on the usual backpacker route) we stumbled up to our friends house to a wonderfully warm welcome from Christina. Lili, their oldest daughter is still a little shy of us but she soon warms up and Maya who is a little over 4 months gurgles happily even if we’re speaking to her in a strange language. Alex gets home a little later and beers are cracked and pizza ordered as we sit out on the porch to catch up over the evening. It feels just like those barmy nights back in Australia with the sun up until late.

South Germany is perfect for cycling at this time of year and with the weather so good we go for a couple of rides with Alex. These either end in, or stop in, a biergarten for nourishment (both in food and liquid form). In summer biergartens pop up everywhere, but having a local to point out the best and sometimes hidden ones is priceless. Many a beer is drunk and wurstsalat consumed in several excellent biergartens in and around Ulm and Langenau in our 6 days with Alex and Christina.

The Donau Fest (Danube Festival) is also on during our stay so on the Saturday night we head into Ulm for some dinner and to watch the fireworks display. The festival has a Hungarian theme on one side of the river with food, wine, music and crafts from this area in stalls, and on the other side of the river there are other stalls and entertainment from other parts of eastern Europe. The area is totally packed though so we opt for dinner at the nearby pancake house where we can get a beer and sit down to eat. The fireworks start up much later and are timed, quite appropriately, to the Blue Danube played by an orchestra who are on a temporary pontoon at the edge of the river.

We always really love coming to Germany, we can communicate in the language and we have friends we enjoy spending time with, but its time to shake ourselves up a bit and start this journey where the places, languages and people are not so familiar.
L

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Comments

[Nico and Brigitte]

Welcome to Europe
Welcome to Travelblog and welcome to Europe! Good to see that you've made it over there. Are you going to Switzerland at all? We are still Down Under but off to Papua New Guinea or South America soon. Cheers Nico and Brigitte aka lovelyplanet

[Mandy]

Informative
Hello Leanne and Tim, thanks for sharing your travels with me, I look forward to hearing from you with anticipation of a new adventure or liquid stories ..... good for you ....

[Haggis]

Bier ist die Spase des Lebens und die Losung zu den Problemen von Leben!!
Oder near genug. Ich nehme an "barmy nights" sind eine freudsche fehlleistung fur die "balmy nachte" oder sie sollen hier sein fur die englische Grille mit der Barmy Armee. Und, was machen Pfannenkuchen und Pizzas auf dem Deutschen Memu??? Was ist zu Sauerkraut und Teigklosschen geschehen? Das ist genug deutschlish fur now. Meine brain ist to das limit stretched. Blog responses sind so much leichter wenn sie von einem Englische schicken, (snitzel?) sprechen Land. Aufwiedersehen. Bleiben sie gut und glucklich. Die Innereien von Schaf - Haggis to you!